Rocks and Leaves
by Follow-The-Firefly
Summary: NaruDei Deidara wasn't expecting to find Naruto. Especially not in the condition he was in. Written for Tropicalna. Rated T for Teen.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Deidara...I only own the plot.**

**It's Mika-chan! This story is for Tropicalna! This is my first shot at a NaruDei, so I hope it isn't too crappy...It was interesting to write, that's for sure. Let the deadly tale begin!**

A single ninja walked through the grass on his way to the Hidden Leaf Village, trying to make it to the city before sundown. This ninja wasn't going to the village because he had to. On the contrary, actually.

Deidara wanted nothing to do with Konoha. Nothing whatsoever.

He had nothing against the Leaf Village residents. He didn't like the layout of the village, for one thing. It wasn't artistic enough, in his opinion. The main reason was because he didn't want to run into the last Uchiha, who just so happened to be the younger brother of his fellow Akatsuki, Itachi.

Bored, Deidara's hand found its way to the clay pouches at his side. Clay was ingested through the grotesque palm-mouths and with a little effort from the artist, an artistic creation was born: a clay bird, one of Deidara's favourites.

Tossing the work of art in the air, the usual hand sign was made and a single word was uttered, but that one word was enough to bring down an entire village.

"Katsu!"

The bird exploded with such a force that it rocked the ground slightly. Grinning, Deidara created several more birds and exploded them before something unusual caught his eye.

A few feet ahead was a tree, but the tree wasn't the thing that intrigued the former Iwa ninja. There was a boy sitting under this tree, a blonde boy with hair that spiked up in just about every direction imaginable. He was covered in dirt and scrapes dominated his face. Then Deidara saw the whiskers on his face and he knew: this was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. Uzumaki Naruto.

He should have captured him, brought him back to the Akatsuki lair. He should have done any number of things. But he didn't.

Deidara didn't want to hurt Naruto.

Instead, he slowly approached the younger blonde, not knowing how Naruto would react. He certainly wouldn't think too fondly of Deidara after the latter kidnapped the Kazekage, who happened to be a friend of Naruto's. Well, it didn't hurt to try.

"Are you ok, un?" Deidara asked as he reached Naruto.

"What are you…" Naruto obviously didn't recognize Deidara at first.

Once he did, however, the younger ninja grabbed a kunai that was lying near his leg and attempted to throw it at the Akatsuki ninja. Deidara quickly grabbed the kunai and threw it aside, a smirk forming on his lips.

"I see you remember me now, un."

"Why are you here?" Naruto demanded. "You're going to kidnap me, aren't you? You're going to kill me like you killed Gaara!"

"You sure jump to conclusions, don't you?" It was then that Deidara noticed that Naruto's thigh was sliced open, a small trickle of crimson liquid running down his leg. "We need to get you cleaned up, un."

"I don't trust you." Naruto said as Deidara wrapped his arm around the former's waist so Naruto could walk.

"I didn't say you had to trust me, un." Deidara rolled his good eye. "I just need to get you somewhere safer than here."

And so they walked off, Deidara trying not to let the other blonde fall over whilst trying to ignore the hesitant glances shot at him by the Konoha ninja.

"Why are you helping me?" Naruto asked when they got to the gates of the city.

"Because I couldn't let you die, un." Deidara shrugged. "Are there a lot of guards around now?"

"You're in Akatsuki." Naruto grinned. "Shouldn't you know this?"

"I've only been to Konoha once, un." Deidara said quickly. "And it was noon."

"No, there aren't." Naruto shook his head. "We should be able to make it back to my apartment in one piece. Just as long as you don't blow anything up."

"That's going to be hard, un." Deidara smiled, which, oddly enough, made Naruto's stomach feel queasy.

Eventually the pair arrived at Naruto's apartment. It reminded Deidara of his own place before he left Iwa. The only difference was Naruto's was a tad messier.

"So where do you keep the first aid stuff, un?" Deidara asked as Naruto threw himself into a kitchen chair.

"Bathroom closet." Naruto said as Deidara walked off in the direction of the bathroom. "You know, my friend's a medical ninja. She could probably do it better."

"If she's like the medical ninja I know, un," Deidara said as he traipsed back into the room, "she'll charge for everything."

"Nah, Sakura-chan's pretty good with that." Naruto shook his head. "She won't charge me."

"So first we should clean this up a bit." Deidara knew that he had stated the obvious once he said it.

"With what?" Naruto frowned, eyebrows furrowing.

"Don't you use this at all, un?" Deidara looked questioningly at the other blonde.

"Not a lot." Naruto shook his head again. "Sakura-chan usually fixes me up. Or Ino, but she's usually watching the guys and making sure Shikamaru doesn't slack off too much."

"Whatever you say, un." Deidara rolled his grey eye to the ceiling as he doused a cotton ball with hydrogen peroxide. "This is going to hurt a bit, un."

"Obviously." Naruto tried not to jerk his leg as Deidara ran the cotton ball over the injury.

"So…" Deidara said after a minute of awkward silence. "What happened, un?"

"I was training." Naruto said simply.

"How so?" Deidara frowned, dampening another cotton ball and rubbing it on the wound.

"I was creating shadow clones and throwing kunai and shuriken at targets. One of the clones hit me and slashed my leg." Naruto went on. "I tried to get back to the village, but it hurt too much to walk. So I decided that I'd stop for a while and take a break. And that's when you showed up."

"And we know the rest from there, un." Deidara twisted the ivory lid on the brown bottle.

"So what about you?" Naruto asked, straightening his leg a little. "Why were you out here?"

"Leader-sama has sent me out here to spy on the village, un." Deidara said with complete nonchalance. "I hate espionage missions."

"Why?" Naruto didn't really like espionage missions himself, but maybe the two had something in common.

"I can't use my art, un." Deidara said. "But you'd know about that, un."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded once. "So what do we do now? Are you going back to wherever the hideout is?"

"I can't really spy on anything that isn't moving, un. Or anything at night, for that matter." Deidara shrugged. "Mind if I crash here for the night?"

"Sure, I guess I could live with that." Naruto said. "I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood for some ramen."

"How can you eat that stuff?" Deidara asked as he watched Naruto cross the kitchen and start to make ramen.

"How can you not?" Naruto replied with a question. "It's the best!"

"From what Itachi says, that's all you eat, un." Deidara smirked.

"I guess you could say that." Naruto nodded.

So a few minutes later, Naruto was happily eating ramen at the kitchen table. Deidara was with him, but he was making small millipedes and exploding them.

"Don't they hurt?" Naruto asked through a mouthful of ramen.

"What, un?" Deidara frowned.

"The things on your hands." Naruto gestured to the palm-mouths with his chin.

"Oh, these?" Deidara held up his right hand, palm toward the younger blonde. "Nah, not really, un. I mean, they do when the teeth bite my skin, but other than that, they don't bug me a bit."

"How did you get them?" Deidara had to wonder if Naruto was always like this.

"I was born with them." Deidara shrugged. "I really don't know, un."

"Maybe they're a mutation?" Naruto suggested.

"I guess that's one way of looking at it, un." Deidara said, a small smile forming on his lips.

"Well, that's that." Naruto said, drinking the broth from the bowl and setting the bowl back on the table. "So now what?"

"It's almost nine." Deidara said. "We still have a few hours to kill, un."

"I try to be asleep by ten." Naruto said, placing his dirty bowl and chopsticks in the sink.

"I'm always up until midnight, un." Deidara said. "Hidan always starts his praying sessions before bed and they take forever."

"Who's Hidan?" Naruto frowned.

"Forget about it." Deidara shook it off. "You're better off not knowing, un."

"Wait…" Naruto frowned as he sat back down at the kitchen table. "Aren't you out to capture me?"

"Technically, yes." Deidara said.

"This would be a pretty good time to do it." Naruto said.

"Are you saying that you want to be captured, un?" Deidara smiled.

"No!" Naruto yelped. "That's not what I meant!"

"I know, I know." Deidara gave a short laugh. "I really don't want to capture you, un."

"Why not?" Naruto was really confused by Deidara's actions.

"Let's just say my feelings about you changed after we fought, un." Deidara said in a somewhat softer voice.

"We never really fought, though." Naruto pointed out.

"Good point." Deidara agreed. "But you get what I'm saying, right?"

"Yeah, I do." Naruto said. "So…why the change? Did I do something?"

"You were just being yourself, un. I guess it's just something that I saw." Deidara obviously didn't want to talk about the subject anymore because he said, "I guess we should turn in. It would be nice to get some actual sleep for once, un."

"I'll get the spare futon out of the closet." Naruto said as he left the table.

"I'm used to sleeping on the floor, un." Deidara said. "Sasori no Danna and I had to do it all the time."

"Didn't you guys have rooms or something?" Naruto asked as he came back carrying the futon.

"Yeah, but Danna never did and he made me suffer with him, un." Deidara scowled at the memory.

"Sounds like your Danna was a bit strict, huh?" Naruto smiled.

"You got that right." Deidara said, walking over to Naruto and grabbing a corner of the futon so they could straighten it out.

"So now I guess it's bedtime!" Naruto exclaimed as he hopped into bed.

"I hate this part…" Deidara scowled.

"What part?" Naruto wondered what could make someone hate going to bed so much.

"This part, un." Deidara replied as he pressed his hand to his face and removed his eyescope with a squelching sound.

"I thought that was permanent?" Naruto frowned.

"Nope." Deidara shook his head, setting the scope on the floor by his pillow. "I made it after I joined Akatsuki and lost to that damn Itachi, un."

"I know how _that_ feels." Naruto remembered his encounters with the infamous Uchiha.

"So is Sasuke still around, un?" Deidara asked, crawling under the covers and looking up at Naruto.

"He left." Naruto said in tones of sadness. "He said he wants to kill Itachi."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me, un." Deidara laughed. "From what Itachi says, it sounds like he's bent on revenge."

"Yeah…" Naruto sounded very far off, like he was lost in his own thoughts.

"So I guess we sleep now, huh?" Deidara assumed.

"That's the plan." Naruto said.

Soon the apartment was filled with silence. Deidara remembered the earlier conversation he had with Naruto, when Naruto asked what made him change. Deidara had been telling the truth. It wasn't Naruto's fault. It was his. He hadn't intended to fall for Naruto in the way that he had. He figured that he would capture Naruto and the latter would share the same fate as Gaara. But that didn't happen. Naruto had gotten away, something that made Deidara furious. But now he was with Naruto again and they weren't trying to kill each other. So was now the right time?

"Naruto, can I tell you something?" Deidara asked, leaning up on one elbow so he could talk to Naruto properly.

"What is it?" Naruto frowned.

"You asked why I didn't capture you, un." Deidara began.

"Yeah." Naruto nodded.

"Well, the truth is…I couldn't." Deidara admitted.

"What do you mean?" Naruto was even more confused.

"I was able to, but I just couldn't. I didn't want to see anything bad happen, un. Part of me says that's because I don't want Leader-sama to get his way with things. And another part of me is telling me that I wanted you for myself, un." Deidara explained.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Naruto questioned.

"I think so, un." Deidara nodded slowly.

After a moment's thought, Naruto jumped out of the bed and sat down on the floor next to Deidara and said, "You liked me?"

"And I guess I still do, un." Deidara nodded. "After our fight, I kind of forgot about you, as I'm sure you did about me."

"Well, no because you guys are out to kill me." Naruto corrected the ex-Iwa ninja.

"Oh, ok." Deidara said.

"Go on, though." Naruto said.

"I didn't expect to find you injured out in the woods tonight, un. And if I hadn't, who know what might've happened, un?" Deidara implored.

Before he knew what was happening, he felt Naruto's lips crash into his, Naruto's tongue entwining with his. Naruto's sudden action left Deidara completely confused, but he shook it off within seconds. The two wrapped their arms around each other and continued kissing, completely oblivious to the fact that one was an Akatsuki and the other was the Nine Tailed Fox.

"Do I need to guess what you were saying, un?" Deidara asked with a smile as he broke apart from Naruto.

"I think I made my message clear." Naruto smiled in return as he climbed back into bed. "And I think you understood what I was saying."

"Yeah." Deidara said breathlessly.

Neither said anything more for the rest of the night. Each was lost in his own thoughts. But what would happen when morning came and Deidara had to leave? How could they forget this? That's where they were wrong. They wouldn't forget. Even if Deidara never came back to Konoha to see Naruto or if Naruto never got caught by the Akatsuki, they would have the memories of this night. They couldn't forget something like this.

**Was it kinda cheesy at the end? Like I said, it's my first shot at NaruDei. I'll write requests for anyone who wants some. Just message me and let me know. Review? Thanks for reading!**


End file.
